LA PUENTE >> La Puente Mayor Charlie Klinakis walked home from school like usual on the day John F. Kennedy died.

The fifth grader in Springfield, Mass. was blissfully unaware of the assassination until a crossing guard stopped him and his group of friends. Maybe out of a need to talk to someone about it, the guard told the group of children what had occurred.

“The crossing guard told us that the President of the United States was shot,” he said.

The boys could not digest the news because of their age, he recalled.

“At that young age, you don’t realize the impact,” he said. “Yes, the President has been shot, but you don’t understand the magnitude of it, you’re not old enough to understand or adjust to it.”

His mother waited for his father to return from work before the pair sat him down and tried to explain.

“That was probably when I understood what it meant to the country as a whole,” he said.

The Massachusetts-born President’s death resonated in the community 90-miles outside of Boston, he said.

He remembers the solemn atmosphere in his home. His family crowded around their television, waiting for updates. They watched the president’s funeral and Lee Harvey Oswald’s death. He remembers that his family had few discussions about the shooting, but that they followed the extensive coverage on the news.

“It was a sad time for our country,” he said.

He said he still often reflects on that day and the state of shock in the air.

Jason Henry is a staff reporter for the San Gabriel Valley Tribune and Pasadena Star-News. He covers Pasadena, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech and the City of Industry. Raised in Ohio, Jason began his career at a suburban daily near Cleveland before moving to California in 2013. He is a self-identified technophile, data nerd and a wannabe drone pilot. The 2011 graduate of Bowling Green State University likes to shock his city friends by sharing his hometown's population.

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